Professional Documents with Optimal Resume

Do you need a resume?  Or does your current resume leave something to be desired?  Take advantage of Lincoln's subscription to Optimal Resume!

Optimal Resume allows you to create attractive cover letters and resumes that can be easily emailed, downloaded, saved and stored for later.  Each user creates a unique account, so you won't need to worry about saving your resume to a flash drive or emailing it to yourself.  With this program, you can log in from any computer with Internet access to retrieve your resume.

Before you create an account, you'll have to answer a series of questions so that Optimal Resume knows a little bit about you.  After this is done, your resumes and letters can be created using the Document Center.  The templates available in the Document Center are attractive and easy to use.  Most templates just require you to click on blanks to alter information, then save any changes that are made.

The Librarian has more information on this program - ask for details!

After you've finished Persuasion

Jane Austen’s unfinished works: Lady Susan/The Watsons/Sanditon (PR4034 .L3 1982)

What do you do after you’ve finished Jane Austen’s six major novels? Probably the best thing would be to wait awhile and then go back and start them again. You can do this indefinitely, and should, but at some point you might be tempted to veer off and Austen’s first novel, Lady Susan, whose story is told as a series of letters. The main character is the manipulative, immoral recent widow Lady Susan, whose goal it is to find rich husbands for herself and her daughter. It’s very funny, and, this being Jane Austen, everything ends happily for the main characters. Austen probably wrote Lady Susan when she was about 18 and apparently never attempted to get it published.

Jane Austen also left two fragments of novels: five chapters of The Watsons (four sisters and a brother with a need to marry) and twelve chapters of Sanditon (the development of a seaside resort; Austen’s only work featuring a mixed-race character) that start off intriguingly and then end abruptly. It’s not clear why she abandoned the books, although she was working on The Watsons at the time of her father’s death, and on Sandition just months before her own death. Other enterprising authors have attempted to finish the books, anticipating plot developments that Austen might have made, but none has been entirely successful. The notes explaining Austen’s revisions to the text, written by Margaret Drabble, are surprisingly engrossing, showing some insight into Austen’s writing process.

'Walden' by Henry David Thoreau

Walden is a book that doesn’t really need to be reviewed at this point – it is well-known enough that many have already read it, or at least they know a lot about it. Walden is the story of Thoreau's time living in a small cabin on Walden pond in Massachusetts. He contructs his own home in the most affordable way possible and lives by eating the most economical foods available, for example he grows his own field of beans. A common misconception may be that some people believed that Thoreau lived in isolation in his cabin, though the truth is that he had frequent visitors and he walked to town nearly every day.

I feel compelled to write about Thoreau's experience, because his life was in many ways an inspiration for other books that I've read recently. Both Siesta Lane and The Dirty Life are books about people who want to simplify and connect with their environment in a more meaningful way. Are you interested in living more simply or naturally? Walden is a great starting point.

Walden is available in the Lincoln College Library!

'The Dirty Life' by Kristin Kimball

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of self-sustaining, organic farming. I like the idea of safe, natural, healthy foods. I like the idea of thinking locally. I like the idea of food being a product of family. And, strange as it may sound, I really like the idea of hard physical labor. These are all things that are covered by Kimball’s The Dirty Life.

Kristin Kimball is a single, 30-something travel writer living in New York City when she meets the farmer who eventually becomes her husband. The two of them find land in upstate New York and begin a farm with a seemingly simple mission – to create a community supported farm that will provide members with all of the foods needed to feed a family year-round. This means farming grains, vegetables, fruits, poultry, beef and dairy products. Kimball’s journey is fantastically interesting – the reader learns about many different aspects of farm life that city-folk (like me) may not appreciate. The intricacies of creating, equipping and maintaining the farm are mind-boggling, but Kimball describes it in a way that is accessible to people who don’t have a background in agriculture and require explanations.

The fact that Kimball and her husband were able to establish themselves is a wonderful thing to hear – there’s hope for those of us who would like for our lives to be less commercial and more local.

‘Postmortem’ by Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell is one of the best known crime/suspense writers and the Kay Scarpetta series is her best known work. Postmortem introduces Kay Scarpetta as the Chief Medical Examiner in Virginia. Scarpetta is investigating a series of deaths that are the work of a brutal serial killer. Women from a variety of different backgrounds are being killed and Scarpetta must overcome leaks to the press, accusations and personal battles to catch the murderer.

Whenever I read a suspense novel, my inclination is to try to figure out which of the characters is the killer (I think most people do this). Cornwell’s killer did not end up being the person that I expected – but of course I won’t spoil the surprise.

It is also interesting to note that this book was originally written in 1990. This means that many of the techniques for collecting and analyzing evidence that we take for granted aren’t available to these investigators. Even though they have the ability to collect and analyze DNA evidence, it doesn’t play a big role – one character says that he doubts a jury will convict someone based on DNA evidence. In my opinion, this just adds to the fun – Cornwell’s not-too-distant past is engaging to the very end.

Weird History

Did you know that the Borgia family's poison of choice was made with a dead pig or bear? Or that Frederick the Great hired giants for his army because he thought they would see the enemy better than regular-sized soldiers?

I found my ragged copy of The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (Will Cuppy, PN6161 .C787 1992)about 40 years ago in an obscure part of my grandparents' attic, so I've gone through life thinking it was an obscure book that only a few people knew about.

In fact, it's been beloved by many since its publication in 1949. The author spent 16 years reading up on his subjects and writing down facts on index cards. The result is this collection of 26 mini-biographies about historical figures from Attila the Hun (who like other Huns scarred his face on purpose so he wouldn't have to shave) to Lady Godiva to Montezuma to Miles Standish.

You wouldn't want this to be your only source for an essay on a historical figure, but as a secondary source, The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody is guaranteed to get your paper noticed. It's also often hilarious. The many cartoon-like illustrations are also charming: the one on this page is Lucretia Borgia (who really probably didn't kill anyone).

‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger

Students at Lincoln College of Technology’s Dayton campus will recognize ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ as one of the possible book choices from Mr. Strickland’s book list for American Literature. Others will know it as one of the most respected American novels of the 20th century. Challenged in some communities for being vulgar or inappropriate, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ is just as relevant to modern readers as it was to readers 60 years ago.

‘The Catcher in the Rye’ follows sixteen year old Holden Caulfield during two days of his life shortly after he is expelled from boarding school. Holden leaves school and returns to New York City but does not immediately go home. Rather, he checks into a hotel and spends his time reflecting on his past and making plans for the future that he hopes to achieve. This book will ring true for any person who has experienced the disillusionment of growing up.